It is well-understood that bone formation is indicated for treatment of a wide variety of disparate disorders in mammals including simple aging, bone degeneration and osteoporosis, fracture healing, fusion or arthrodesis, osteogenesis imperfecta, etc., as well as for successful installation of various medical orthopedic and periodontal implants such as screws, rods, titanium cage for spinal fusion, hip joints, knee joint, ankle joints, shoulder joints, dental plates and rods, etc.
Increasing bone mineralization to treat conditions characterized at least in part by increased bone resorption, such as osteopenia, bone fractures, osteoporosis, arthritis, tumor metastases, Paget's disease and other metabolic bone disorders, using cathepsin K inhibitors and TGF-beta binding proteins, etc., are well-known as shown by U.S. Publication No. 2004/0235728 to Selwyn Aubrey Stoch, published Nov. 25, 2004, and Mary E. Brunkow et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,445 and U.S. Publication No. 2004/0009535, published Jan. 15, 2004. In the Brunkow '535 publication and '445 patent, the TGF-beta binding proteins include Sost polypeptide (full length and short peptide) antibodies that interfere with the interaction between the TGF-beta binding protein sclerostin and a TGF-beta superfamily member, particularly a bone morphogenic protein. All of the diseases named above are due to a systemic loss of bone mineral and thus the administration of the antibody therapeutic is for systemic (whole body) increase in bone mineral density.
In the Brunkow '535 publication and '445 patent, the binding proteins preferably bind specifically to at least one human bone morphogenic protein (BMP) among BMP-5 and BMP-6.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,395,511 to Brunkow, et al. teaches a novel family of human TGF-beta binding proteins and nucleic acids encoding them. The protein binds to at least human bone morphogenic protein-5 and human bone morphogenic protein-6.
Sclerosteosis is a progressive sclerosing bone dysplasia. Sclerostin (the Sost gene) was originally identified as the sclerosteosis-causing gene. Sclerostin was intensely expressed in developing bones of mouse embryos. Punctuated expression of sclerostin was localized on the surfaces of both intramembranously forming skull bones and endochondrally forming long bones. The physiological role of sclerostin remains to be elucidated. However, it is known that loss of function mutations in Sost cause a rare bone dysplasia characterized by skeletal overgrowth.
In U.S. Publication No. 2006/0165799, published Jul. 27, 2006, teaches a bone-filling composition for stimulating bone-forming and bone-consolidation comprising biocompatible calcium sulfate and viscous biopolymers. The composition is intended to be administered easily into the missing part of injured bone without diffusing to surrounding organs.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,039, issued in 1999 teaches the processes to yield unique calcium phosphate precursor minerals that can be used to form a self-setting cement or paste. Once placed in the body, these calcium phosphate cements (CPC) will be resorbed and remodeled (converted) to bone.
For example, calcium phosphate particles prepared in accordance with the '039 patent can be used in any of the orthopaedic or dental procedures known for the use of calcium phosphate; the procedures of bone filling defect repair, oncological defect filling, craniomaxillofacial void filling and reconstruction, dental extraction site filling.
U.S. Publication No. 2006/0198863 to Carl Alexander DePaula, published Sep. 7, 2006, relates to a formable ceramic composition for filling bone defects. The composition comprises ceramic beta tricalcium phosphate particles having a particle size from about 40 microns to 500 microns admixed with a hydrogel carrier containing citric acid buffer. The composition has a pH between 7.0 to 7.8 and the hydrogel component of the carrier ranges from about 1.0 to 5.0% of the composition.
Wise and SOST are understood to be closely related family members (Ellies et al., JBMR 2006 November; 21(11):1738-49). Those of ordinary skill are aware that the Wise null mutant mouse exhibits a bone phenotype (Keynote presentation at the 2005 American Society of Bone Mineral Research meeting in Nashville, Tenn. State of the Art lectures, an embryonic source of skeletal tissue. Patterning Craniofacial Development; by Robb Krumlauf, Ph.D., Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, Mo., USA).
U.S. Publication No. 2005/025604 to Vignery published Nov. 17, 2005 shows induction of bone formation by mechanically inducing an increase in osteoblast activity and elevating systemic blood concentration of a bone anabolic agent, including optionally elevating systemic blood concentration of an antiresorptive agent.
Finally, Yanagita, Modulator of bone morphogenic protein activity in the progression of kidney diseases, Kidney Int., Vol. 70, No. 6 (2006) 989-93 shows Usag-1 (also known as “Wise”) protects the kidney from cisplatin insult due to BMP inhibition. See also Yanagita, Uterine sensitization-associated gene-1 (USAG-1), a novel antagonist expressed in the kidney, accelerates tubular injury, J. Clin. Invest., Vol. 116, No. 1 (2005) 70-9, Yanagita, BMP antagonists: their roles in development and involvement in pathophysiology, Cytokine Growth Factor Rev., Vol 16, No. 3 (2005) 309-17, and Yanagita, USAG-1: a bone morphogenic protein antagonist abundantly expressed in the kidney, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., Vol. 316, No. 2 (2004) 490-500.
What is needed in the art is a new method for treating the bone disorders described above, as well as others. Surprisingly, the present invention meets these and other needs.